Over the next two weeks, the CIE will be featuring each of the two member startups that were chosen to compete in the Winston-Salem Creative Startups Accelerator. Hosted by the Center for Creative Economy, the Accelerator is an eight-week course for startups based in creative pursuits. The first seven weeks will be an online course dealing with “everything from customer acquisition to unit economics.” The eighth is a “Deep Dive” where startups will travel to Winston-Salem for a week of intensive workshops, pitching, and networking with industry professionals and angel investors. The week ends with a pitch competition that splits a pool of $50,000 between the top three companies.

Eduardo Mora found his love for education—and his love for Wilmington—while studying abroad at UNCW during his undergraduate years, an exchange student from his native Chile. He has returned to Wilmington to pursue a master’s degree in Spanish while teaching undergraduates, and along the way, he’ll be teaching children how to code.

This last venture is called Kidobit. Mora isn’t new to entrepreneurship; his first startup, the creative studio BrightLab LLC, ran a successful Kickstarter for a language acquisition book/journal called Spanish for Travelers that’s now in production.

Kidobit, he says, grew into a separate company within the past year. Its goal? To not only innovate but disrupt the world of education using games and storytelling that will allow children to be creative, connect with their environment through exploration, and become the protagonists of their own learning experience.

The first project is a tabletop game that will teach children basic coding: an analog means of giving kids digital skills.

But it’s about more than just rote memorization. Kidobit’s emphasis is the storytelling, the interactivity. And Mora plans to expand Kidobit’s universe to include graphic novels and video games—more narrative forms of storytelling—toward the same goal of education.

Mora has been a member at the CIE since he returned to Wilmington after his undergraduate study, when he decided that he wanted to educate on his own terms.

“The CIE has been great for us in terms of helping us learn more, and they’re always coming up with new workshops and programs for business owners,” he says.

Mora attended the CIE’s initial info session on Creative Startups and ended up applying. Kidobit, alongside Corey Chandler Productions, will go through the eight-week seminar with funding assistance from the CIE. Mora is eager for the opportunities for mentorship, networking, and a learning experience.

“I’m really excited,” Mora says. “More than the money I might get if I win, for me the most important part is that I will get exposure to the people who know what they’re doing in terms of business.” Mora has the creativity part handled; it’s just the business side where he could use practice.

Kidobit has big plans for the future: a platform that promotes learning through games, literature, and digital content; a platform for resources accessed by educators and parents; a means through which kids can learn creatively, innovatively, and interactively.

“My main goal in life—it’s kind of cheesy,” Mora says, “is to do something that transcends.”

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